Sources et modèles des historiens anciens, 3.

Science and Education a New Dimension. Philology, VII(61), Issue: 210, 2019

The present article is an attempt to summarize the theoretical achievements which allow to analyze narratives within the methods of narratology, reader-response criticism, Euclid’s theory of the golden ratio and Aristotle’s concept of the peripeteia. In particular, the analysis of the ancient histories, as this article argues, can be conducted not only to understand the level of their factual reliability, but also to describe their possible impact on contemporary readers or listeners. It is also stressed in the present article that the narrative structure of histories is a perspective object of study, for it may reflect that of the ancient tragedy.

A Companion to Late Antiquity, 2012

The production of complex literary narrative requires economic and physical security. In Late Antiquity, the economic and physical security that most of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire had enjoyed since the time of Augustus came to an end. It was for that reason that the period witnessed the rise and triumph of the chronicle as the primary vehicle for the transmission of historical knowledge. A chronicle was, in essence, a list of successive years, and included one or more brief notices concerning events that had occurred during each year. It differed little, either in content or in form, from the annales maximi that the pontifex maximus had kept at Rome during the republican period. Roman historiography ended, therefore, much as it began, and we are forced to rely upon various sparse chronicles for our knowledge of much of the period c. AD 300-750, particularly for events in the west. Fortunately, the different political fortunes of the western and eastern halves of the Roman Empire insured that the production of complex historical narrative did not cease at the same time throughout the empire as a whole. The production of complex historical narrative in the west seems to have ceased with the work of Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus, whose history covered the period from c. AD 395 to 425. There was a long hiatus then, before the production of the next complex historical narratives by bishop Gregory of Tours (c. AD 538-94) and the English monk Bede (c. AD 673-735). Writing c. AD 594, Gregory produced his Historiae Francorum in ten books, which formally began with the creation of the world and ended with events in AD 591, although they focused mainly on the period after AD 573. He is our only source for the work of Frigeridus, which has not itself survived. Working c. AD 731, Bede produced his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum in five books, beginning with the first invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar in 55 BC and ending in AD 731, although he focused mainly on the period after AD 596. The works of Gregory and Bede are, however, the exceptions that prove the rule-namely, that the composition of complex historical narrative in the west ceased during the early fifth century. Furthermore, they are national

The Authoritative Historian: Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Historiography (with K. Scarlett Kingsley and Tim Rood), Cambridge University Press , 2022

In this volume an international group of scholars revisits the themes of John Marincola's ground-breaking Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography. The nineteen chapters offer a series of case studies that explore how ancient historians' approaches to their projects were informed both by the pull of tradition and by the ambition to innovate. The key themes explored are the relation of historiography to myth and poetry; the narrative authority exemplified by Herodotus, the 'father' of history; the use of 'fictional' literary devices in historiography; narratorial self-presentation; and self-conscious attempts to shape the historiographical tradition in new and bold ways. The volume presents a holistic vision of the development of Greco-Roman historiography and the historian's dynamic position within this practice.

Revista de historiografia 36, 2021

Starting from a discussion about the usefulness of a historical approach to ancient religion, I propose basing the historiography of ancient religion on a set of three concepts, replacing three others that have been widely used. First, I contend that we need to shift our focus from questions of identity ..

От мифологии к истории: происхождение римской историографии

From mythology to history: the origins of Roman historiography by Aleksandr Koptev Lap Lambert Academic Publishing, 2023, 554 p. Content: Foreword Introduction. From mythology to early historical narratives Chapter 1. Chronicle of the Supreme Pontiff 1.1. Supreme pontiff in early Rome 1.2. From the tabula dealbata to the annales maximi: an ancient concept 1.3. Chronicle of the Supreme Pontiff and the stages of its editing 1.4. The annales maximi in scholarship from K.J. Beloch to B. Frier 1.5. From the annales maximi to the tabula dealbata: hypotheses of J. Rüpke and J. Scheid Chapter 2. Greek historiography about early Rome 2.1. Evidence for Italy in early poetry and the first historians 2.2. Aeneas and his journey to Hesperia 2.3. Early evidence for Rome: mythology of foundation 2.4. Aeneas in Italy according to Timaeus and Lycophron 2.5. Evidence for Rome in the fourth-century Greek historians 2.6. Timaeus of Tauromenium and the chronology of Roman history Chapter 3 Chronology and the early list of consuls 3.1. The beginning of the consulate and the problem of the first consuls 3.2. The origin of the Decemvirates of 451-449 BC 3.3. Livy´s two versions for the admission of plebeians to the consulate 3.4. The consular tribunate in 444-367 BC 3.5. Counting chronology and the Saecular Games of 249 BC 3.6. The initial structure of the consular list Chapter 4 Mythologems of early Roman history 4.1. The Roman myth of foundation 4.2. Cacus and Hercules 4.3. Two founders: Romulus and Remus 4.4. Triadism in ritual and mythology 4.5. The Roman kings´ list and Indo-European mythology 4.6. The mythology of the "last battle" and the Roman kingship´s dissolution Conclusion. Changing the paradigm of the memory of the past The list of ancient authors in Russian translation Bibliography Abbreviations

In the beginning was the spoken word. Humans lived for tens of thousands of years with language, and thus with tales about the past, but without writing. Oral history is still important in all parts of the world, and successful transmission of stories over many generations suggests that people without writing can have a sophisticated historical sense. The historical record, however, must start with a system of writing and a suitable writing technology. The earliest forms of writing included cuneiform and pictographs, which were inscribed on stone and clay tablets in Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as Chinese ideograms, which were incised in bronze and on oracle bones (baked oxen bones whose cracks and fissures were thought to foretell the future). People in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China were the first to make records of their contemporaries, which took the form of lists of kings and ancestors. EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA In Egypt, the first lists date from about the middle of the 3rd millennium bce and extend back another 1,000 years to a time when kings were thought to mingle with gods. Entries were made year by year, making these lists among the earliest annals. In addition to the names of kings, events occasionally are mentioned, especially for the later years; but it is hard to understand on what principle they are included. Sandwiched between notations of offerings to the gods are such enigmatic references as " Smiting of the cave dwellers. " Despite their occasional obscurity, these early historians accomplished the considerable task of organizing the past into units of the same size (years) and assigning events to them. The king-lists of the Sumerians, the oldest civilization in Mesopotamia, not only presented the order of rulers but described shifts in power as various kings were " smitten with weapons " and overthrown. The Sumerians were also capable of weaving events into a narrative. A Sumerian stela, or standing stone slab, dating from about 2,400 bce records what is probably the world's first historical narrative. The Stele of the Vultures was erected by the city of Lagash to commemorate its victory in a boundary war with Umma; it contains depictions of warriors in battle gear and an inscription celebrating the triumph. Sumerian writers seem to have developed their own interpretation of history. This interpretation is reflected in the preoccupation of the king-lists with the transitory nature of royal power and in the Sumerian belief that natural phenomena (notably the behaviour of the

These are very brief notes on the work of Richard Sorabji, Karl Löwith, Arnaldo Momigliano, and Hayden White. The goal is to summarize some of the main contributions of each author to the study of historiography and historical consciousness. Questions tackled include: Did Greeks, Jews, and Christians have alternate views of history--or of time, for that matter? How do conceptions of history relate to theories of time? Is the historian ever responsible for thinking about the philosophy of time? Or are the philosophy of time and (the philosophy of) history two distinct fields of inquiry?